URBAN STUDIES
Year:2015 | Volume:5 | Issue:14|Papers Count:7

Time of marriage exerts immediate and direct effects of fertility. Although Iranian women’s age of marriage has gone up in recent years, especially in urban areas, there are also many cases of marriage at relatively low ages. According to 1385 (2006) Iranian census statistics, around 432000 (3.7 percent) urban women who were between 10 to 19 years of age were married at least on time during their lives. Given the fact that early marriage (or marrying at a relatively low age) has direct influence of fertility, this article, using 1385 Population and Housing Census data, aims to study the spatial patterns of the prevalence of such marriages in urban areas of Iran. The index of spatial autocorrelation (Moran) and local indicators of special association (Lisa) were used to show changes and trends and the likelihood of cluster formations. The results showed a negative association between urbanization and early marriage and childbearing and that its spatial distribution across the country followed a random distribution. Correlation analysis results showed that women’s education and employment were negatively related to early marriage and childbearing. Regression analysis results showed that young urban girls’ marriages, extent of urbanization, and percent of illiterate women, together, could explain about 43 percent of the variance of young urban girls’ fertility.

Given the rapid growth of urban areas and the accumulation of resources in cities in recent decades gaining knowledge of, measuring, and the improvement of quality of life has assumed prominence among researchers, urban planners and governments officials. This issue will be solved only if the existing situation changes into the desired one. By considering the perceptions of residents as the existing situation and their expectations of quality of life as a desired situation; then the gap will be identified, hence in order to achieve the desired situation, more fundamental steps should be taken. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to assess people’s satisfaction with life quality in district 4 of the city of Kerman. This site was chosen because of its distinction compared to the other regions. The research methodology is survey and data gathering tool was questionnaire. The research population consisted of all those residing in district4 of Kerman, of which, based on Cochran's formula 384 individuals were chosen as the sample through stratified random method. The results of Non-parametric, Wilcoxon, Cross-call Valise, and U-man Whitney tests and Spearman Correlation showed that there are negative gaps in all five dimensions of the life quality (including: dwelling facilities, security, social communications and sense of belonging, urban facilities and transportation). The highest average for the quality gap is related to the dimension of transportation and the lowest average is related to the social communication and belonging sense. The results of the second hypothesis showed that there is a positive correlation between the respondents’ age and the quality gap. It means that the respondents’ satisfaction increases with increasing of their ages. The Crosscall- Vallis test showed a negative relationship between education and satisfaction with life (sig=0.034, 0.008).

Given the complexities of modern megacities, one of the most important issues for city managers is how to encourage and obtain residents’ cooperation in running the city. Two of the most important concepts in this regard are "Community involvement" and "neighborhood Sense of belonging". The managers of megacities have utilized two institutions, namely "the Neighborhood house" and 'City council" to encourage resident participation. The purpose of the present article is to check the role of community-based organization of neighborhoods in enhancing citizen sense of belonging to the neighborhood. This research was performed as a survey and its sample included 400 individuals from 4 neighborhoods in Tehran (khani abad, janat abad, ozgol, and hakimie). The ideas of Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Putnam were used in the development of theoretical framework. The results showed that the project of community-based organization- has been effective in reducing deviant behavior. This project has also been successful in creation of a sense of belonging among the residents and increasing their satisfaction with the neighborhood. The correlation coefficient of "Community-Based organization and Sense of responsibility" was 0.802 and that of " Community-Based organization and Social satisfaction” was 0.963 and of “Community- Based organization and Sense of responsibility was 0.693, all of which are considerably high.

Overpopulation, technology advancement, and changing consumption patterns have increased waste production from human activities. These materials have negative effects on the environment. The aim of this study was to determine residents’ participation in collection and separation of household waste and the effects that residents’ social and cultural capital have on it in the city of Urumia in the province of Azarbayjan in Iran. The research method was survey and needed data were collected through questionnaires. The sample size was 612 who were selected via multi-stage cluster sampling. Moreover, analyzing data was carried out using the SPSS software. The results indicated that separation and collection of household waste was significantly related to social capital (which consisted of such items like sense of community, social cohesion, institutional trust (r=0.334), and also with cultural capital (that consisted of embodied cultural capital and objectified cultural capital (r=0.401). The results of stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that these variables altogher could explain 23.9 percent of the of variance of residents' participation in separation and collection household waste.

The idea and policy of Constructing new towns was advanced with the purpose of reducing the problems of megacities by distributing the population, better land use, and decentralization. After nearly three decades of the ratification and implementation of this idea in Iran, previous evaluations about the functions of new towns, indicates a relative lack of success of these cities. In this study, the new town of Alishahr is evaluated by using the SWOT technique. On the basis on this method, the most important strengths and weaknesses (internal environment) and also the opportunities and treats (external environment) of Alishahr were obtained by the opinions of 50 ordinary residents and 10 experts of the city Alishahr. According to the results, Alishahr has several strengthes such as several entrance points to the city, above mean latitude (sea level) and different opportunities such as Bushehr’s new airport, North Pars gas field and Eastern grounds landscaping for constructing forest park. In addition, it has weaknesses such as low sense of belonging and cooperation of residents, cultural cleavages, lack of realization of population purposes and different threats like sewage purification treatment systems of Bushehr, the existence of military forces adjacent to the city limits and the are lack of cooperation among government departments and agencies with internal and external environments.

The Bazaar has long had many functions in the lives of many people but with the spread of modernism it, as a socio-economic unit, has lost many of its functions and no longer plays the economic role that it played in the past and its participants no longer observe the ethical norms that once were dominant in the Bazaar. This study examined the changes that have occured in social and cultural values among the Tabriz Bazaar merchants. The research population of this investigation consisted of all the merchants of the Tabriz Bazzar. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 of the merchants. The findings were analyzed by content analysis and the Spss software. The findings showed that one the most important social changes is the transformations that have happened in the normative structure of the merchants, namely the reduction in compliance with ethical norms. The most important cultural changes are the reduction of adherence to religious principles and non-compliance with religious norms, reduction in relations with and the following of religious scholars among the merchants.

This article attempts to examine the social distance and fear of crime among the two tribes of Kord and Lor in the city of Kermanshah in order to evaluate the effects of social distance between these two tribes. The article’s theoretical framework is provided by Herchi’s social control theory, community communication of Tonnies, social distance theory of Park and the social disorganization theory. Research method is survey and data-collection instrument is structured questionnaire. The research population consisted of all Kord and Lak residents who were 20 years of age of above, of which 367 individuals were selected as the sample. Results from Pearson correlation co-efficient showed that there is a significant relationship between social distance and the variables such as neighborhood belongingness (r=-0.25), people’s fear of crime (r=0.34), fear for safety (r=0.24), and religiousness (r=-0.37). There was a significant relationship between people’s fear of crime, on the one hand and neighborhood belongingness (r=-0.33), fear for safety (r=0.27) and religiousness (r=-0.44), on the other. Path analysis results showed that religiousness having a path coefficient of r=-0.23, fear for safety r=0.16 and neighborhood belongingness r=-0.18 directly influences social distance variable and religious attitudes r=-0.37, fear for safety r=-0.21, and neighborhood belongingness r=-0.25 each, directly and indirectly, influenced residents’ fear of crime through social distance. In General, the results showed that the more the social distance among the residents, the more abnormality they will experience.